The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Heledd Fychan, and amendment 2 in the name of Darren Millar.

Item 11 is next, a debate on the Welsh Government's annual report—delivering the Government's priorities and legislative programme. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office to move the motion. Rebecca Evans.

Motion NDM8639 Jane Hutt

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 11.21(ii):

1. Notes:

a) the Welsh Government Annual Report 2023/24;

b) progress on the legislative programme.

Motion moved.

Last week, the third annual report of this Senedd term was published, setting out the progress that we continue to make towards the delivery of our programme for government. It has once again been a year full of challenges and difficult choices. We have continued to face prolonged economic and budgetary pressures in an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. These financial pressures have been exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine, and we still live with the devastating consequences of the Truss budget that piled additional pressure on both households' and public services' budgets. Yet again, Wales was chronically undervalued and underfunded by the Tories. On a like-for-like basis, our 2023-24 settlement was worth up to £700 million less in real terms. All this has had direct and unavoidable consequences for delivery. In that context, we are immensely proud of what we have delivered in the third year of this Senedd, and I remain committed to doing everything that we can to support and deliver for the people of Wales. 

I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the immense contribution Mark Drakeford made as First Minister during the period covered by this annual report and throughout his tenure as First Minister. I'd also like to thank Plaid Cymru for the work that we undertook together as part of our co-operation agreement, and we achieved a great deal for the people of Wales. We are a Government that looks to work with others in order to achieve better outcomes for more people. We look forward to working closely with the new UK Labour Government in Westminster as genuine partners, moving forward guided by our shared ambitions. 

Putting the people and the communities of Wales first has been the priority of every Welsh Labour Government since devolution began, and it always will be. I am proud of what we have delivered in the third year of our programme for government, despite all the challenges and the obstacles that we have faced. We have invested an additional £425 million in the Welsh NHS, and we continue to make steady progress on our key priority of reducing waiting times. Our cancer performance has also hit its highest level for two years, and we will continue to prioritise this key area for the remainder of this Senedd term. We believe in a publicly funded NHS, with a public sector workforce, and we have continued our investment in the NHS. We've delivered in the workforce, delivering both short-term and longer term solutions to the challenges that we face. 

Our agreement with the Government of Kerala in March 2024 provided an additional 250 healthcare professionals to immediately bolster our NHS. Closer to home, our new medical school in north Wales will support the workforce of years to come. We will welcome the first intake of students to Bangor this September. We have implemented a range of radical changes to primary care, including reforming NHS dentists' contracts, enabling 140,000 new patients to receive a full course of dental treatment, and reducing the 8 a.m. bottleneck at GP practices. We're also providing more services where they're most needed, in our high-street opticians and community pharmacies, through the common ailments scheme. 

Of course, it goes without saying that this Government remains absolutely committed to maintaining the Welsh NHS as free at the point of need. As Nye Bevan said in 1948, 

'no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.'

This Government also recognises the fundamental importance of a child's first 1,000 days to their long-term life outcomes. We will continue to ensure that every child in Wales has access to the best opportunities to succeed, regardless of where they live, their background or their circumstances. I am proud that we have offered over 6,900 additional places to parents through Flying Start. This means more two-year-olds across the country than ever before can receive the support to help them thrive and grow. We continued the phased expansion of early years provision, providing more families with free childcare, with an extra 4,500 childcare places offered during 2023-24. One hundred and fifty-four thousand additional learners became eligible for universal free school meals by March 2024, and provision has now been fully rolled out in 19 of our 22 authorities, well in advance of our September 2024 target, with the remaining three authorities also well on track.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

We’ve all had to live with the chaos caused by the economic mistakes and the mismanagement of successive UK Tory Governments. This Government will always prioritise Welsh workers and businesses and work to support a stronger futureproofed Welsh economy to deliver greener jobs and fair work. We supported the US semiconductor equipment manufacturer KLA to bring its new headquarters and equipment research and development centre to Wales, which will employ around 750 people when complete. Our flagship young person's guarantee continues to upskill and support young people under the age of 25, with over 30,000 people enrolling in skills programmes. We’ve also delivered 51,000 all-age apprenticeships since May 2021.

The climate emergency poses a serious and imminent threat to our nation and this is why the Welsh Government embeds our response to climate change in everything that we do. We have invested £100 million into local transport improvements, which will encourage more sustainable, low-carbon forms of travel, and we’ve supported projects that will harness the power of our tides. I’m also immensely proud that Wales continues to be a leading nation in recycling. This year, we ranked second in the world for municipal recycling and we continue to innovate, leading the way with the world’s first trial of a digital deposit-return scheme for plastic bottles and drinks cans.

We want Wales to be a welcoming place, one which everybody can feel proud to call home, and where everyone can feel safe and valued. We want Wales to always be a country where everyone knows that they’re welcome and they’re valued and that they belong, and that is why we have worked tirelessly to deliver the 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan'. In December, we highlighted some of its achievements, including the launch of a culture grant scheme for grass-roots organisations empowering black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. We also provided £390,000 of funding to the Wales Hate Support Centre, ensuring that all victims have access to tailored support and advocacy in the face of hate crimes. Along with making people feel valued and safe in Wales, we have provided £210 million of funding to provide over 17,500 people with temporary accommodation to prevent and support those facing homelessness.

We reflected on some of the legislative achievements of this Government in the First Minister’s statement last week. The Bills we’ve brought forward in the third year of the legislative programme will make positive changes for democracy in Wales and include the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act and the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill, which Members agreed at Stage 4 last week. We’ve also brought forward Bills crucial for the long-term future of Wales. The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) Act 2024 will help tackle the climate emergency and the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 will play a key role in delivering our renewable energy targets, simplifying the consenting process for major infrastructure projects in Wales, while the Health Service Procurement (Wales) Act 2024 will deliver a new regime for the procurement of NHS services to meet the needs of this important sector.

I hope this afternoon I have managed to convey just some of the many achievements of this Welsh Government in the last year. It highlights what is possible for Wales to achieve, despite a financial and economic maelstrom engineered by a hapless and out-of-touch Westminster Government. For the first time in almost a generation, there is now an opportunity to work closely with a UK Government that shares our values and our ideals. Fourteen years of Tory chaos have left their mark on all of us, and the challenges that we face will endure, but I believe that we can overcome them.

Our priority as a Government is to continue to focus on what matters most to our communities and to work in partnership with those who share our vision of a brighter future. And I believe that we can look to that future with fresh optimism to deliver a greener, kinder and fairer Wales.

Sam Rowlands to move amendment 1.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendments tabled in the name of my colleague Darren Millar in front of us today, and thank Rebecca Evans—

Sorry, Sam. Amendment 2.

I thought it was, Deputy Presiding Officer. I didn't want to doubt you for a moment there, but thank you.

Always question me. [Laughter.]

Amendment 2—Darren Millar

Add as new points at end of motion:

Regrets:

a) the lack of sufficient progress in reducing NHS waiting times and improving emergency department performance;

b) recent PISA education results that show a decline in educational outcomes in Wales; and

c) that workers in Wales are paid less than those in other parts of the UK.

Does not believe that either the Welsh Government’s Legislative Programme or Annual Report demonstrates sufficient attention to these key challenges.

Calls upon the Welsh Government to develop a clear action plan to:

a) improve NHS performance;

b) improve educational outcomes; and

c) improve incomes in Wales.

Amendment 2 moved.

I move amendment 2 in the name of my colleague Darren Millar and thank Rebecca Evans for standing in place of the First Minister today, to speak to the report in front of us. It's quite a day to be discussing the Welsh Government's priorities. Unfortunately, Welsh Labour's most recent priority seems to have been back-stabbing and in-fighting instead of delivering for the people of Wales. This annual report, whilst highlighting the seemingly many good things that are happening across Wales, unfortunately seeks to gloss over and ignore many of the issues that the people of Wales face as a result of a tired Welsh Government who have been in power for far too long. We have to hope that 2026 brings change, because the people of Wales desperately need that change.

They face the highest NHS waiting times on record and the lowest pay packets in the UK. They face the worst education outcomes and sky-high ambulance waits. When we look at these significant metrics, it's clear that Wales is being held back by a Cardiff Labour Government. Any Government worth its salt will do all it can to reverse those woeful statistics, whereas health, education, the economy, transport, rural affairs—the list goes on of policy areas that have been ignored because Labour Ministers are too focused on themselves and their psychodrama here.

Whilst I always acknowledge the incredible efforts made by so many in our health service, as the shadow health Minister, I'm far too regularly contacted by residents, health workers, charities and other organisations about the poor experience that too many people that we represent are facing. Sick people are languishing on waiting lists or waiting an age for an ambulance after they suffer a terrible fall. Doctors, nurses and others are operating in crumbling hospitals, and don't get the funding they need to deliver for patients. It's a laser-like focus on these issues that should be the priority of this Welsh Government.

Indeed, the Minister talked about giving children the best possible chance in her opening remarks, but, sadly, they're taking decisions that make the chances of children even worse, especially when we look at education. The Institute for Fiscal Studies' research shows the performance of disadvantaged children in England is actually either above or similar to the average for all children in Wales. So, if you're a disadvantaged child in England, you're probably going to do better than an average child here in Wales. This is directly thanks to the mismanagement from Labour here in Cardiff Bay, including chronic underfunding and a poor implementation of an experimental curriculum that refuses to place a priority on academic rigour.

So, not only are children here being failed, but Labour have presided over a historic brain drain. There are so many talented Welsh individuals, but many young people feel they have no choice but to leave the country. That is intolerable and needs to change. When you look at the economy, it's not difficult to see why this brain drain is happening. The Welsh Government presided over the highest economic inactivity rates in the United Kingdom and the smallest pay packets. Along with the highest business rates in Britain, this Government has stymied the potential of the Welsh people and is holding our country back.

Now, maybe a new First Minister—perhaps Rebecca Evans, who is standing in his place here today—will change direction, but, sadly, I doubt it, because everyone in the Labour group has supported this failed orthodoxy that has held the people of Wales back for far too long. They are all responsible. So, I call on all Senedd Members to back our motion today, which will start the process of rejuvenating Wales's public services and give Wales the leadership it deserves. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

I apologise for the wrong order.

I call on Rhun ap Iorwerth to move amendment 1.

Amendment 1—Heledd Fychan

Add as new points at end of motion:

Regrets the lack of clear targets and measurable reporting on outcomes.

Calls on the Welsh Government to provide:

a) more information about how it measures progress on its legislative programme; and

b) an assessment of how it is making progress against these measures.

Amendment 1 moved.

I forgive the Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to respond to this annual report. I will start positively, on a day when that can perhaps feel difficult, and say that there are several positives in this annual report, and that's thanks to the legacy of the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru. We welcome the around £60 million allocated to provide free school meals, for example, to every primary pupil in Wales, and the fact that the first cohort of students will start to study at the medical school in north Wales in September—another of the visions of Plaid Cymru that, after years of campaigning, captured the imagination of the Government.

But, on the whole, I regret, once again, the opportunities that have been missed, and this Goverment is one that is now linked with what hasn't been delivered, rather than what it is delivering. And, with waiting lists in the NHS amongst the longest in the UK, a decline in education standards, a third of children living in poverty, it would be fair to expect the Labour Government to be determined to focus entirely on facing up to those challenges. But, unfortunately, it demonstrates a lack of seriousness in tackling those problems in our public services and, as a result, a lack of respect for the expectations of the people of Wales who elected the Government to deliver for them.

Here's a quote from the annual report, which tells you a lot about what the Government hopes to achieve:

'we will use less resource intensive ways to share our plans and progress so we can relentlessly focus on practical delivery'.

It's a pretty revealing sentence, I think, actually, which shows that this Government isn't showing the seriousness that we should expect when it comes to measuring and monitoring performance with any real rigour, and that's what we refer to in our amendment today. You can't expect, I guess, a nine-page document to tell the whole story of an administration's last 12 months, but I do detect a degree of cynicism in the selective approach taken to what has been excluded from and not just included in this annual report, and nowhere is this more evident, I must say, than the use of one selective statistic to give the impression that it's on top of the record-high waiting lists, when all the evidence points otherwise.

To turn to the Government's priorities for the coming months and years, this idea of a managed decline has defined the attitude of Welsh Governments for far too long, I think, and there is precious little in the programme for government announced last week to suggest that that is about to change. Following the extremely disappointing decision to postpone the review of council tax until 2028, thousands of households will continue to be penalised by an unfair system for at least another four years. We don't need to wait for legislation to pursue several measures that would benefit the economy and public services of Wales.

For the first time in 14 years, after all, this Labour Government—as uncertain as the Government is at this point in time—is in the position of having what they have wanted and what they consider to be a friendly Government in Westminster. And the First Minister, before he steps down formally, should pick up the phone time and time again, if needed, to Sir Keir Starmer to emphasise the way that a fair proportion of HS2 funding could transform the rail network of Wales. I call on him, too, to make the case for abolishing the Barnett formula, which is long since dated, to ensure that our nation is funded on the basis of need rather than population. Plaid Cymru MPs are tabling an amendment to the King's Speech to demand that fundamental change to the way in which Wales is funded. And I encourage the First Minister, after spending months boasting about the benefits that Wales would enjoy with a Labour Government at both ends of the M4, to demand the powers over the Crown Estate and over justice and policing, which have been in the hands of the Scottish Government for years now. We need a Government that campaigns for Wales, not one that bends to the new regime, time and time again, in Westminster.

And to conclude, despite his personal challenges in his post and the announcement today, if the First Minister were to be successful in convincing Sir Keir Starmer on these points in his last months in the post, I would be the first to admit that he left with a positive legacy.

The foreword to this report states that the Government's agenda, what's left of it, at least, has an unstinting focus on delivery. This is a laudable ambition, but that delivery must be based on tangible outcomes, not an open-ended process alone. We need a clear destination for the journey, with the stages clearly set out, rather than the current system of allowing the journey to be entirely directionless. Unfortunately, this report shows a complete lack of direction, particularly over recent months, where the Government has hardly survived, and has focused on internal difficulties rather than on delivery for the people of Wales. So many of the successes listed when it comes to health are nothing more than descriptions of the Government's actions, rather than outcomes.

For example, the report references the fact that the 111 service for urgent mental health is now being used by 80,000 people, but makes no mention of how this is being translated into improved mental health outcomes for the users. Similarly, the Help us Help you scheme is framed in terms of its coverage, rather than its impact on reducing pressures on emergency departments. Volume of usage for services, while important, is not, in and of itself, a measure of success. The fact that the Government has been unable to clearly articulate where and how its programme is making a difference speaks volumes in this regard.

The report’s highly selective appraisal of the current performance of the NHS in Wales also underlines a worrying aversion on the part of this Government to being up front about the scale of the problems facing our health service. For example, the section on two-year waits is based on a very specific time frame and belies the fact that two-year waits for treatment are actually on the rise once more. Not to mention the fact that the Government’s own target for eliminating such waits entirely was missed almost a year and a half ago.

Meanwhile, the praise of cancer performance rings rather hollow when you consider that almost half of cancer patients in Wales do not receive the treatment that they need in time. Furthermore, the recruitment of 250 healthcare professionals from Kerala is a drop in the ocean compared to the glaring gaps across the workforce, particularly in areas such as nursing, GP services and oncology. Indeed, the fact that the Government is having to draw on the personnel of health services outside of Wales reflects poorly on existing retention strategies.

Upon taking office earlier this month, the new UK health Minister used his very first statement to declare that the NHS in England is broken, and followed this up by commissioning the Darzi review into its performance. Even the most creative framing of the statistics would struggle to show that the NHS in Wales is in ruder health than its counterpart over the border, and, on several metrics, the situation here is far worse. So, will this Government show that it is serious about confronting the existential challenges to our health system by commissioning a comprehensive independent investigation of the NHS in Wales?

I now call on the Cabinet Secretary to reply to the debate.

Thank you, and I'm very grateful to colleagues for their contributions this afternoon, and very proud of the progress that we have made in delivering our programme for government and our legislative programme, despite the difficult financial circumstances. While I do welcome the acknowledgement from the leader of Plaid Cymru about the progress that we have made in a wide range of areas, we do oppose the first amendment from Plaid Cymru.

Our annual report is clearly structured around the 10 well-being objectives, and it does provide updates on the progress that we have made against our programme for government commitments. We also oppose the second amendment, from the Welsh Conservatives. The annual report directly highlights the progress that this Government has made in areas such as NHS performance, education outcomes and incomes across Wales, within the framework of the well-being objectives.

The third annual report of this Senedd term shows how this Government has continued to deliver against our well-being objectives, despite the ongoing challenges that we have faced. I am immensely proud of what this Government has achieved, and I’m positive and optimistic about what can be achieved moving forward. Last week’s statement set out our ambitious legislative programme for the coming year, and our annual report sets out the significant progress that we have made in the last year, and sets the tone for further delivery in coming years.

Over the course of this Senedd term, we are investing £1 billion to help the NHS recover from the pandemic and reduce the backlog. Reducing waiting times is a priority and a challenge. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the NHS, long waits have fallen by 70 per cent since March 2022. But we still have more work to do.

Colleagues referred to cancer waiting times. While, in 2023, we saw a record number of new referrals for suspected cancer—more than 192,000—there was also a record number of people starting cancer treatment—that was more than 21,000, and this absolutely does remain a priority area for this Government.

On average every month, 11,000 people are accessing urgent primary care centres, but 85 per cent of those cases are being managed without the need to access an emergency department. More than 7,500 people access same-day emergency care services every month, and nearly 80 per cent of people are discharged home on the same day. There has been a reduction in the average length of hospital stay over the calendar year, from 8.5 days to 7 days. And, in 2023-24, the first formal year of reporting, pathways-of-care-delay numbers saw an approximate 5 per cent overall reduction. Awaiting reablement care packages has seen a significant reduction of 40.5 per cent in 2023-24, indicating improvement in capacity within community-based services. So, there is absolutely good progress being made in all of those important areas.

The Conservatives talk about PISA, but they know full well that these tests were taken when the effects of the pandemic were still being felt, and Wales is not alone in the situation—every single country saw a decline. And Members, I hope, would recognise that, before the pandemic, Wales was the only country in the UK to see improvements in all—literacy, numeracy and science. We recognise this improvement has been derailed, which is exactly why we've put in place a number of policies specifically to support improved standards in reading, writing and maths. Dirprwy Lywydd, we're committed to working with our partners to continue to deliver for the people and the communities of Wales.

The proposal is to agree amendment 1, tabled by Rhun ap Iorwerth. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Yes, there are objections. We will, therefore, defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

Unless three Members wish for the bell to be rung, we will move immediately to voting time. [Interruption.]

Okay, we will ring the bell. Five minutes.

The bell was rung to call Members to the Chamber.